I don't know, why are you a vegetarian? I am pretty sure, that as a human being, you have freedom of choice, and luckily, that most magical of all
natural attributes, opposable thumbs! , right now, the Universe is telling you, Look, right now I've made you master of the said 'known Universe'
for now and yes, I did in fact make you an omnivore, but your more than welcome to pass on the whale blubber! It's free will, and you don't like the
idea of consuming other animals because you can rationalize what suffering is. You made a conscious decision that hurting animals to provide you with
a slab of babybacks is cruel. I am happy to have the ability to go to the corner store, and buy a steak, or a roast or whatever and consume it.
It's the way I am accustomed to living. I also believe, seriously enjoying vegetables, that I think they might also suffer, as a matter of fact, I'm
convinced they do. But, as they say, that's life in the food chain! Enjoy the salad!

I'm a vegetarian. Not because I love animals, but because I hate plants.

Anyway. Joking aside.

It is a mistake to attribute human feelings to animals. Humans have been omnivores since the early humans realized that "this or that" could be
eaten.

To use the last twenty years of "I am a vegetarian because we weren't meant to eat meat" or "Cows have feelings too" as arguments against
millions of years of evolution is not a sign of being humanly superior. It is plain old stupid. Only serves to show that humans are the only species
that does not evolve to something better.

You should not stop eating meat because animals are treated cruelly in the "meat factories". You should stand up and demand that animals are treated
well. You can treat a cow well and still eat it when the time is right.

But of course - it is so much better to become "a humane vegetarian" - on principle - rather than treat our food well.

And of course....

The "Humane Card" has ZERO value if it is played by people who think we should keep people alive (and suffer terribly or in silence as
"vegetables") by any means possible because we won't grant them a decent dignified death - on the grounds that we are "humane".
Not saying that it is OP's opinion, but rather that it often is the way the super humane vegetarians think.

And for those with perfect English...
here are a few ,,,, and ((( and ))) or even .... combined with !!!! and ????
Put them where ever you like.

We thought it would be really hard to stop eating meat. But one thing, if you honestly let yourself SEE watch how all animals are "processed" you
will open you eyes.

We found it was really fun finding a new way to eat, and now we laugh when people say "but what do you eat?". We have wonderful meals and we have
not missed what was once our favorite food at all!

edit on 10-4-2013 by Char-Lee because: (no reason given)

Same here. When I stopped eating "meat" I thought I had lost my best friend. How can food be worth eating? But I did it for several reasons,
expecting never to really enjoy food again. Ha!

What occurred is that my taste buds healed up. That's right, eating "meat" messes with the taste buds. When that happened every meal (and every
meal since) was, has been, and will be a feast.

I knew I was healed of eating "meat" when I was watching an ad one day, and someone was filling up a dish with great food grains and good looking
food. Then they plopped a piece of some animal onto the plate. My reaction was "Why are they putting that corpse on the food?" and I knew I was all
the way home.

Couldn't it also be said that the evolution of man that separates us from the beast (lion in your example) is the fact that such brutality toward
other creatures can now be deemed unnecessary for our survival?

Why is it that people can so easily justify eating living fruits and vegetables, but not cow or deer? If you look at this planet as a whole, you would
find that there are only two categories of existence: Living things, and inanimate things. Living things need to eat living things in order to
survive. We didn't make this rule up, it's everywhere in nature. We either eat or be eaten. That's it. And, we are not separate from beasts.

Couldn't it also be said that the evolution of man that separates us from the beast (lion in your example) is the fact that such brutality toward
other creatures can now be deemed unnecessary for our survival?

Why is it that people can so easily justify eating living fruits and vegetables, but not cow or deer? If you look at this planet as a whole, you would
find that there are only two categories of existence: Living things, and inanimate things. Living things need to eat living things in order to
survive. We didn't make this rule up, it's everywhere in nature. We either eat or be eaten. That's it. And, we are not separate from beasts.

Eating flesh and blood is eating our own kind.
It seems very odd really.

Life has to consume life to survive. We didn't make the rules, just is what it is.

Researchers have shown plants respond to music...so should we not eat plants also?

I'm an animal lover myself, in fact, my wife and I have quite a menagerie. We don't raise any for food, they are all pets. (though we do plan on
getting some chickens, but just for eggs, not meat).

To each his or her own I say though...just don't try and make it like you're high and mighty because of it. That's where so many vegetarians get a
bad rap. Respect my right to eat meat if I like, and I'll respect your right to not do so, that's all.

Originally posted by benrl
Humans are a part of nature, not separate from it.

The only difference between a lion taking a gazelle and Me eating a steak is that Humans have much more processing power so that they can actually
take the time to agonize over the choice of what they eat.

The funny thing is its postulated that the addition of meat (via fire and preservation) is what lead to Humans even having the capacity to ponder
those "humane" thoughts you have on meat, that extra protein jump started human cognitive thought.

Barring that, I will give you the fact that Corporations taking over farms have led to crazy amounts of abuse of animals (as with anything a
corporation takes over) and that the modern westerner diet simply contains TOO much meat.

Meat is apart of the human diet for a reason, we have just gotten to the point where GETTING the meat is far to easy and leads to excess .

When was the last time you hunted down your own meat? (If you go hunting, then by all means, that's fair game and is in a much different category,
imho, than factory meats.)

I am vegetarian as well. Mostly for personal health reasons, but I am also compassionate and conscious of the abuse and suffering and waste that goes
in to food production and I am glad I do not contribute to it anymore.

But, as you touched on, humans have taken our consumption of meat to an excess. When a lion kills a gazelle it kills A (one, singular) gazelle which
it feeds off of for as long as it can. Everything else is then scavenged and all parts are used by one animal or another.
Humans, however, kill MILLIONS of animals every single day just under the assumption that we will need it and the fear that we won't have it when we
do 'need' it. We stockpile. We hoard. We control. We have gone against what is natural. Please tell me of any other animal that keeps their food in
cages until it is time to eat.

Yes, meat has contributed to human evolution in many ways. No, I don't think it is horrible for someone to eat meat...but again, the only kind of
meat I truly support is that which was personally hunted in the wild. (And yes, I grew up hunting.)

People think it's such a 'right' as a human to have meat at ALL times...but what about a garden? I guarantee you there were more gardeners and
farmers in our past (up until just about 100 years ago with the first supermarket) than there ever were hunters.

I understand and respect your view totally. What do you think about the fact the animals would never have had the chance at life at all had they not
been raised for slaughter--not trying to be smartazz

Originally posted by LastStarfighter
I understand and respect your view totally. What do you think about the fact the animals would never have had the chance at life at all had they not
been raised for slaughter--not trying to be smartazz

There would then have been the correct balance of said animals in nature and not the miserable creatures we grow for use. We have also caused misery
in our unbalance love of cats and dogs. I just saw news of another turtle almost extinct because of pet trade. Why can't we live and let live,
observe and enjoy their joy.

Chickens that never moved their wing and have beaks cut off, cows kept pregnant for milk and are to heavy for their legs and often live in a sling.
Animals live in horror conditions from birth to fearful torturous death. Birds bred to "look at" never get to fly because we want to "see" them in
their little cage.

When I was in the service we went through a survival training program. One evolution of the program required us to capture, kill, prepare and eat
small game. Although the catching was easy as the instructors had already placed the animals in a cage, the rest of the process caused more than one
soldier to turn vegetarian for at least the rest of that evolution. Lots of cheap talk about doing it before hand until you actually have to take the
life.

What I love are those vegans that go off on you for eating meat, because of how bad it is for the environment and such . While wearing their polyester
shirts, Nike shoes, and buying fruit and vegetables imported from other countries. I eat organic, locally farm raised beef, and only buy local grown
vegetables. I bet my carbon stamp is far smaller than theirs.

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